No parole for former dairy princess in 1989 love triangle killing

WAUSAU — Parole has not been granted to a former dairy princess convicted of killing her ex-boyfriend’s fiancee 27 years ago.

The state Parole Commission held a hearing Wednesday for Lori Esker and deferred her parole eligibility until next August. Another parole hearing is expected in June.

Esker, now 48, was convicted in 1990 of first-degree intentional homicide in the death of Lisa Cihaski. The 21-year-old woman was strangled with a belt by Esker in a car in a Rib Mountain motel parking lot. Cihaski was engaged to Esker’s former boyfriend.

Witnesses testified the Marathon County dairy princess was obsessive and still wanted a relationship with the man.

The case was featured in the TV movie “Beauty’s Revenge,” which was seen on NBC and Lifetime.

Both Esker and Cihaski attended Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School, and Esker was a UW-River Falls student at the time of the slaying.